Golf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players (“golfers”) use sets of clubs to attempt to hit their respective balls into a series of holes spread over a golf course. In stroke play, golfers can win by hitting their ball into all of the holes using the fewest number of hits (“strokes”). Other types of play, such as match play, also typically require one or more golfers to sink their ball in the fewest number of strokes to win.
Unlike most ball games, golf does not require a standardized playing area. Instead, the game is played on golf courses, each of which features a unique design that depends on the native geography, course layout, grasses and other materials that make up the course. Because each golf course is unique, golfers are constantly developing an ability to “read” the contours of the ground in an effort to determine precisely how their ball will travel for a given shot. This is particularly true when golfers are on the green close to the hole and want to “sink” a putt to allow them to move onto the next hole.
Until now, however, reading greens has been more of an art than a science—and a challenging art at that. For example, in 1999 Phil Mickelson lost the U.S. Open, one of the four majors, to Payne Stewart by a single stroke. After the tournament, “Bones” Mackay, Phil Mickelson's caddie for 18+ years, stated a regret stemming from a birdie attempt for Phil on the 17th green. On that birdie attempt, Bones studied the contour of the green and advised Phil that the putt was straight—in fact, however, it broke right. Mickelson missed, resulting in the one stroke loss to Payne Stewart. Phil Mickelson had to wait five more years before he was able to win a major (i.e., Phil won the Masters in 2004 by beating Ernie Els to get the “majors monkey” off his back). Golf history is replete with other examples of bad green reads.
In order to reduce or eliminate bad green reads, the inventor has devised expert green reading techniques that allow a golfer to quickly, confidently and accurately read a green, thereby reducing scores and increasing enjoyment for the golfer.